Thoughts on an IC curse?

[Miriamele]

My Hikari needs some sort of curse as one of her prevalent weaknesses which I try to give all my characters. A little backstory first on how she got cursed.

 

Basically she was in a tent with her parents when a machine exploded, killing them all (or so Hikari thinks, she was very close to death but didn't actually die.) All Hikari can remember is waking up after dying with an old woman beside her holding a glass rod. The woman resurrect her! Or so Hikari thought. Waking up the next day in a small room she found the woman gone and all of her injuries healed.

 

So I thought that besides a drive to find relics Hikari could somehow have gotten cursed while being healed fully. A friend gave me the idea of her being reckless to the point of death but anyone who knows my Arietty knows I have a character like that already so I'm looking for ideas. Thank you for anyone who shoves said ideas at me as I'm clueless!

[Kodie]

Kodie sort of is dealing with an effects of a curse that was actually put on his mother, and recently discovered this as his mother kept it a secret to her grave. While he doesn't suffer the same effects as she did, he was born with low aether, red eyes, and a few other things, but won't suffer the same fate as his.

 

All he knows something happened in Tam Tara that caused his mother to have the curse a year before he was born, and he's trying to find out what and why.

 

Though it's a work in progress myself trying to figure out what and how it was caused lol.

[Kallera]

You could try to take this several ways. ill edit with the second in a moment.

 

1. Hikari's body is not hers- the injuries she thought she had were in fact part of a soul transplanting process into another body akin to what Edda and Nybeth were trying. This isn't a perfect process, in fact that might have been what the old lady was looking for. Hikari may find herself with some psychological effects, such as a penchant for daydreaming or performing actions without remembering them, or strange dreams where she sees her immediate vicinity, including her sleeping self.

 

2. Hikari is cured...and dead- a variation of the above, Hikari may have been healed at the point of death and before the soul exited, rendering her "undead" while her body yet functions(the layman terms being her body was cured literally at the moment it "died") , and oddly vulnerable to stuff that affect zombies, skeletons, while still retaining bodily functions, with possibly other effects regarding her aether and aging.

 

Voisent shananigans- not very versed in voidsent... but perhaps the lady used Hikari's body to house something supernatural, and that is the only reason she survived. if ithe other spirit is purged or otherwise sent back to the void, Hikari may suffer something drastic, like bad dreams, possession, lack of ability to use magic safely, or even death.

[Parth Makeo]

Considering I have a mild/side character that is cursed in some way, I can share some advice.

 

1. You could say that yes she was healed of her injuries but her body is so sensitive that touching the previous wounds may make Hikari feel that sort of pain again. And i don't mean like ow pain i mean like 'Holy crap he can somehow feel my muscle tissue despite no wound there!' sensitive. Giving her more reason to avoid being touched.

 

2. Another twist on the curse is that the old woman who resurrected her did it for other reasons unknown thus far but once fulfill could end up killing Hikari as the curse is what keeps her alive! 

 

also P.S: You said old woman huh? Maybe you should get in contact with me since I had an old woman per-say who did curses too. I mean it. We should get in touch and try to interconnect it :3

 

Now as for the person I am playing that is cursed. He was changed into a Carbuncle. His aetherial structure was reformed to the shape but he became more physical after pleading with a woman to spare him from the Green Death that was approaching. He had been tied to a tome that kept him in a state of Immortality that lasted from the fifth Era till now.

 

Currently he is no longer bound to the tome, meaning he ages normally but is still in a Carbuncle form with the rare chance to achieve his normal self...so he might also join in on this? 

 

I mean it, contact me in PM or ingame if I am on my characters and we can get things sorted out. Even my Discord

[GentleGiraffe]

Curses exist in lore, yes. They're usually a part of Thaumaturgy proper, but you could probably spin something similar with the other disciplines of magic as well. 

 

Curses can be clensed though, so a good thing to ask yourself is why she didn't seek professional help with hers, or if she did, why it remains.

[PSDuckie]

Curses exist in lore, yes. They're usually a part of Thaumaturgy proper, but you could probably spin something similar with the other disciplines of magic as well. 

 

Curses can be clensed though, so a good thing to ask yourself is why she didn't seek professional help with hers, or if she did, why it remains.

 

In a way, Tyll'a's situation regarding magic is the result of an arcanima-related curse.  Basically, his mother (an arcanist) botched a summoning and ended up cutting off the infant Tyll'a's access to his aether, making him the FF14 equivalent of a Squib from Harry Potter.  Unfortunately for him, the aether cutoff is permanent, forcing him to rely on magitek for anything resembling magic.

[Kilieit]

One of my characters is "cursed" permanently, too - because "curse", in his case, is actually just a word for "was badly messed up by a spell a voidsent cast on him and it's permanent now". It's not that there's an ongoing spell dampening something or preventing him from accessing it - it's gone.

 

So I guess that's one aspect to think about? Is this something that can be fixed - is this curse locking something away (but locks can be picked), or squashing it down (but weights can be removed)? Or is the thing just gone, no longer in existence, and never to be returned? (This doesn't mean, ofc, that you couldn't have a storyline where they try to lift the curse anyway - but the original goal of said storyline will be doomed to failure, and the storyline's resolution will be in personal acceptance of the curse's effects.)

 

As for the effects of the curse, I think D&D discussions are going to be your friend here, because they usually have a bunch of interesting and creative ideas:

• Bestow Curse - Alternative curse ideas? [3.5e]

• Any curse ideas?

• Bestow Curse ideas!

[Verad]

Curses exist in lore, yes. They're usually a part of Thaumaturgy proper, but you could probably spin something similar with the other disciplines of magic as well. 

 

Curses can be clensed though, so a good thing to ask yourself is why she didn't seek professional help with hers, or if she did, why it remains.

 

I am currently tormenting a player with an arcanometric curse, the pattern of which is now etched upon their soul. I could also see conjury being used to inflict taboos and bans upon people in the eyes of the elementals, but I'll save that for another day.

 

Possible reasons for a curse remaining:

1. Cost of removal is prohibitive. This may be difficult to pull off because RPers are obnoxiously generous about providing made-up resources to remove a made-up problem.

 

2. Only the person who placed the curse can safely remove it, leading to complications for the afflicted or the person trying to remove it if it isn't the original caster.

 

3. Something about the curse makes it unexpectedly useful in the short-term despite the long-term downsides.

 

4. The original caster will do something worse if the curse is removed, and can sense this occurring.

 

5. Take a page from early Buffy seasons and make the removal of the curse part of the curse itself in a cruel twist of the knife.

[Miriamele]

You could try to take this several ways. ill edit with the second in a moment.

 

1. Hikari's body is not hers- the injuries she thought she had were in fact part of a soul transplanting process into another body akin to what Edda and Nybeth were trying. This isn't a perfect process, in fact that might have been what the old lady was looking for. Hikari may find herself with some psychological effects, such as a penchant for daydreaming or performing actions without remembering them, or strange dreams where she sees her immediate vicinity, including her sleeping self.

 

2. Hikari is cured...and dead- a variation of the above, Hikari may have been healed at the point of death and before the soul exited, rendering her "undead" while her body yet functions(the layman terms being her body was cured literally at the moment it "died") , and oddly vulnerable to stuff that affect zombies, skeletons, while still retaining bodily functions, with possibly other effects regarding her aether and aging.

 

Voisent shananigans- not very versed in voidsent... but perhaps the lady used Hikari's body to house something supernatural, and that is the only reason she survived. if ithe other spirit is purged or otherwise sent back to the void, Hikari may suffer something drastic, like bad dreams, possession, lack of ability to use magic safely, or even death.

 

I -really- like 1 but sadly she has an identical twin and it would be noticed very quickly if she has a new body since it wouldn't be perfect, I mean maybe it's an exact replica but.. yeah it would be noticed.

 

Number 2 is also tempting but she knows some restorative magics from studying at the conjurer's guild briefly >.< I do like your last bit though and it's tempting to go that way, thank you for the idea!

[Miriamele]

One of my characters is "cursed" permanently, too - because "curse", in his case, is actually just a word for "was badly messed up by a spell a voidsent cast on him and it's permanent now". It's not that there's an ongoing spell dampening something or preventing him from accessing it - it's gone.

 

So I guess that's one aspect to think about? Is this something that can be fixed - is this curse locking something away (but locks can be picked), or squashing it down (but weights can be removed)? Or is the thing just gone, no longer in existence, and never to be returned? (This doesn't mean, ofc, that you couldn't have a storyline where they try to lift the curse anyway - but the original goal of said storyline will be doomed to failure, and the storyline's resolution will be in personal acceptance of the curse's effects.)

 

As for the effects of the curse, I think D&D discussions are going to be your friend here, because they usually have a bunch of interesting and creative ideas:

• Bestow Curse - Alternative curse ideas? [3.5e]

• Any curse ideas?

• Bestow Curse ideas!

 

Thank you for the ideas! I tried googling curse ideas but it wasn't very helpful, silly me I should of remembered D&D! I'll look at those links right now.

[Thunderbolt300]

Reading the replies here made me recall this, which might be a source of inspiration:

 

http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Geas/Quest

 

Slightly different from a curse, but opens some different doors!

[Melkire]

5. Take a page from early Buffy seasons and make the removal of the curse part of the curse itself in a cruel twist of the knife.

 

..Rommel, you magnificent bastard.